Table of contents

37. THE COLLEGE OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN, BRIDGNORTH

The forerunner of this royal free chapel was the
college founded at Quatford in 1086 by Roger, Earl
of Shrewsbury. A tradition current in the later
Middle Ages that the college was founded at
Quatford to fulfil a vow by Roger's second wife
Adelize (fn. 1) is not out of accord with known facts and
may embody some elements of truth. It seems clear,
however, that the earl's main object was to provide
his clerks with a source of income more secure that
the life-interests in the manors of Stoke St. Milborough and Morville which they had earlier been
given. (fn. 2) Material considerations probably also
accounted for his choice of site. The college stood
close to one of the earl's principal residences in a
district better provided than Shrewsbury with
comital estates from which income might be drawn.
He may well have imagined, too, that its church
would form an imposing and attractive feature in the
new town he planned to establish at Quatford. (fn. 3)

The content of the college's foundation charters is
preserved in later transcripts of an abbreviated
account of its foundation, probably drawn up in or
after the 13th century. (fn. 4) The preliminaries seem to
have been accomplished quickly, for the three or
four original deeds cited in the account can be dated
to the years 1085-6. (fn. 5) The earl first provided his
canons with the whole of Eardington, except the site
of the castle and town of Quatford and his demesne
woodlands, granting Millichope to Wenlock Priory
in compensation for the latter's claims to Eardington. (fn. 6) The church was dedicated, apparently on 14
November 1086, (fn. 7) before an impressive assembly
which included three bishops, six archdeacons,
monks from the earl's foundations at Shrewsbury
and Wenlock and from Gloucester Abbey, two
sheriffs, and at least six of the earl's principal lay
tenants in Shropshire. Provision was made for six
canons, and the earl then added to his original endowment the churches of Claverley and Alveley, the
tithes of Nordley, Bobbington, and 'Laetonia', a
third of the tithes of Morville, Chetton, Stottesdon,
Corfham, Culmington, and Siefton, and the tithes of
tolls and a market in Quatford. On the same day the
earl's sons Hugh and Philip gave the township of
Burcote in Worfield.

It is improbable that Quatford would have
survived for long as a secular college had not the
estates of the earls of Shrewsbury been forfeited to
the Crown following the rebellion of Robert of
Bellême in 1102. Earl Roger's son Hugh granted
Quatford to the French abbey of La Sauve Majeure, (fn. 8)
presumably because he no longer required the college
as a means of providing for his secretariat, and in the
confirmation of the grant by Robert of Bellême
provision was made that as each canon died his
prebend was to be assigned to a monk. (fn. 9) If any steps
were taken to transform Quatford into a dependency
of the French house, the events of 1102 quickly
rendered them abortive. Patronage of the college
was retained by the Crown and when it next appears
in the mid 12th century (fn. 10) it had been transferred to
Bridgnorth, where its church was the chapel of St.
Mary Magdalen in the royal castle there. Although
it now comprised a dean and five canons the college
preserved in its unusual constitution some trace of
its origins as a community of comital chaplains. The
Crown reserved the right to appoint to each prebend as well as to the deanery and each canon
exercised independent jurisdiction in his own prebend.

The college also retained the greater part of its
original endowment. Burcote does not reappear
among its possessions and the tithes it had once held
in Chetton, Culmington, Siefton, and Stottesdon
had passed into other hands by the mid 13th century. (fn. 11) Sources of revenue were divided on a rough
geographical basis between the deanery and the five
prebends, those of the deanery lying in Bridgnorth
and townships to the east, those of Alveley and
Eardington prebends to the south and south-west,
and those of Morville, Underton, and Walton
prebends to the north-west.

The dean drew most of his income from tithes
and other dues in Bridgnorth St. Mary, Claverley,
and Bobbington. (fn. 12) His portion also included Quatford church, Pendlestone mills in Bridgnorth, the
manor of Ludstone in Claverley, and a portion of
tithes in Stottesdon. Income from tithes and Easter
offerings in the dependent chapel of Bridgnorth St.
Leonard and from fairs and markets in the town
were apparently shared between the dean and canons,
but the dean was said to have appropriated the
former in 1379 (fn. 13) and the canons' rights to the latter
were in doubt at the Dissolution. (fn. 14) By the mid 13th
century Alveley prebend included lands in the south
of Eardington as well as the church and tithes of
Alveley itself, while the remainder of Eardington,
with its chapel, formed the endowment of Eardington prebend. (fn. 15) This may have been a modification of
the original arrangement, since the two Eardington
estates were said in 1255 to represent parts of a single
prebend, (fn. 16) and in 1350 the portion of Eardington in
Alveley prebend was transferred to that of Eardington. (fn. 17)

Lands in Morville and the two adjoining townships of Underton and Walton, afterwards the sole
endowment of the three prebends named after them,
probably represent the two hides which Earl Roger
had held in demesne at Morville in 1086. (fn. 18) The
college lost the portion of tithes it had held in Morville parish. Shrewsbury Abbey was able to establish
its title to the tithes of Walton and Underton in the
12th century (fn. 19) and there is no indication that Morville prebend included the tithes of that township. (fn. 20)
These three prebends were considerably less well
endowed than the others in the later Middle Ages
and there are indications that they had once
included the lost portions of tithes in Corvedale. A
third of the demesne tithes of Corfham and a small
annual pension from Diddlebury were still claimed as
part of Underton prebend in 1255. (fn. 21)

Deans and canons of Bridgnorth were thus considerably better endowed than their counterparts at
Shrewsbury St. Mary (fn. 22) and there was little apparent
change in the gross income from the college's estate
between the 13th and the 16th centuries. There are
five late-13th-century valuations purporting to show
the income of each prebend. The two sets of figures
given in 1255 (fn. 23) and the assessment in the Taxatio of
1291 (fn. 24) are untrustworthy but more reliance can be
placed on the gross valuations of £123 and £160
given at the assizes of 1272 (fn. 25) and 1292 (fn. 26) respectively.
The valuation of £81 6s. 8d. in 1535 (fn. 27) is clearly an
underestimate, judging by the net valuations of £112
in 1546 (fn. 28) and £101 (fn. 29) in 1548 and the gross value
of £132 given in the first ministers' account,
1547-8. (fn. 30)

Rather more than half of the total income was
annexed to the deanery, which was said to be worth
60 marks in 1272, 100 marks in 1292, and £81 5s. 2½d.
in 1547-8. (fn. 31) All but some £3 of the last-mentioned
sum was derived from tithes and other spiritualities, and Alveley, the most wealthy of the prebends,
similarly drew most of its income from tithes. It
had been valued at 60 marks in 1272 and at 80 marks
in 1292, but its income was reduced after the transfer
of lands and tithes in Eardington to Eardington
prebend in 1350. (fn. 32) It was worth £21 6s. 8d. in 15478, of which at least £20 seems to have been derived
from tithes. (fn. 33) Eardington prebend, worth 15 marks
in 1272 and 14 marks in 1292, comprised in 1547-8
about 200 acres of land (fn. 34) worth £9 a year and only £1
in tithes. (fn. 35) The three prebends in Morville, which
included little or no income from tithes, (fn. 36) were
reckoned to be of about the same value as Eardington prebend in the later 13th century (fn. 37) but their
values had fallen to little more than £6 apiece in the
16th century. (fn. 38)

Since the Crown enjoyed the patronage of both
deanery and prebends the royal household remained
the largest single source from which deans and
canons were drawn until the later 15th century. (fn. 39)
The origins of the few known 12th-century canons
cannot be established but in John's reign they
included two royal justices, (fn. 40) a king's physician, (fn. 41)
and at least four of the king's foreign dependents or
allies. (fn. 42) The Wardrobe became a prominent source
after the appointment of the noted wardrobe clerk
Peter of Rivaulx as dean in 1224; (fn. 43) wardrobe clerks
secured the prebends of Alveley, (fn. 44) Eardington, (fn. 45)
Morville, (fn. 46) and Underton (fn. 47) between 1227 and 1238
and two Poitevins, one of them a clerk of the Great
Wardrobe (fn. 48) and the other the king's kinsman Peter
of Aubusson, (fn. 49) held Walton prebend successively,
1248-75. Clerks from the queen's Wardrobe were
appointed to Underton in 1244 (fn. 50) and to Alveley in
1260. (fn. 51) Prince Edward, whose physician had been
canon of Alveley, 1252-3, (fn. 52) secured control of
appointments to the deanery during and after the
Barons' Wars and two late-13th-century canons had
connexions with the papal curia, but otherwise most
vacancies were filled from the royal household.
William of Fécamp, appointed to Morville in 1263,
was a king's physician, (fn. 53) the noted pluralist John
Maunsel, who held Underton until 1264, (fn. 54) and
Adam de Fileby who probably succeeded him were
diplomats, (fn. 55) and Walter Langton, Keeper of the
Wardrobe, was appointed dean in 1291.

Apart from the royal justice Henry of London (fn. 56)
the only canon with known local connexions up to
this date had been William Lestrange (Alveley
1203-28), (fn. 57) who had been followed here by his
nephew John Gernun. (fn. 58) In the 1290s, however,
there occured a curious interlude while the deanery
was held successively by three of the king's Savoyard kinsmen and three prebends were held by John,
Nicholas, and William Brun, who seem to have been
members of a prominent Bridgnorth merchant
family. (fn. 59) A fourth prebend was held by Robert of
Turberville, who was living at or near Bridgnorth in
1292 (fn. 60) and was also rector of the nearby parish of
Wheathill.

Walter de Bedwynd, Cofferer of the Wardrobe, (fn. 61)
was appointed to Morville prebend in 1306 and the
two next vacancies were also filled from this department. (fn. 62) Although the Wardrobe never secured a
monopoly of preferment at Bridgnorth it provided at
least 14 of the 57 deans and canons appointed
between 1306 and 1399, compared with four from
the Chamber and three from the Privy Seal. The
last, all appointed between 1361 and 1363, (fn. 63)
included William of Wykeham. Comparatively few
prebends went to officials of the Chapel Royal in the
14th century and of the five known appointments of
such clerks three were made in the last years of
Richard II. (fn. 64) Four canons were members of the
queen's household (fn. 65) and five were officers in the
Chancery (fn. 66) or Exchequer. (fn. 67) Instances of nepotism
were rare. Wykeham was followed at Alveley by
Richard of Wykeham, who does not appear to have
been in the royal service and was presumably a
kinsman. Walter of London may have shown a
similar concern for his kin, for he was succeeded in
Underton by Nicholas of London in 1332 and,
having been reappointed to Underton, resigned it
to John of London in 1343. Apart from Thomas of
Eyton alias Knockin and Henry of Harley, who
challenged Eyton's title to the deanery in 1327, (fn. 68) no
14th-century deans or canons appear to have been of
local origin but three deans were in the service of
bishops of Hereford. (fn. 69)

If the evidence of royal commissions of inquiry is
to be believed, 14th-century deans habitually
neglected the dependent chapels in their charge. In
1336, when it was alleged that the dean and canons
had been alienating their estates, the commissioners
were given power to deprive them if necessary. (fn. 70)
As a result of an inquiry, perhaps set on foot by a
newly-appointed dean in 1369, his predecessor was
found to have failed to provide chaplains at Claverley, Broughton, Bobbington, Quatford, and
Bridgnorth St. Mary. (fn. 71) Similar charges were made in
1376 (fn. 72) and 1379 (fn. 73) and among the detailed catalogue
of misdeeds attributed to Columb of Dunbar in
1410 were charges that he had sold the lead on the
roofs of Quatford, Bobbington, and Claverley
churches, causing them to fall down. (fn. 74)

From the early 15th century a far smaller proportion of deans and canons was drawn from the
administrative departments of state. Columb of
Dunbar obtained the deanery in 1403 as a reward
for help given by his father to Henry IV in the
campaign of Hambledon Hill (fn. 75) and William Dudley
(dean 1471-6) also seems to have owed his preferment to timely military assistance to Edward IV. (fn. 76)
Other 15th- and 16th-century deans included the
King's councillor Richard Martin (1476-82), (fn. 77)
Wolsey's secretary Thomas Larke (1508-15), and the
diplomat Thomas Magnus (1517-48); the five
remaining deans were primarily scholars, two of
whom were incidentally connected with the royal
household. (fn. 78) The antecedents of 26 of the 62 canons
appointed between 1399 and 1548 are not known.
The remainder included four administrative officials
in the king's or queen's household (fn. 79) and a Chancery
clerk, (fn. 80) while the Privy Seal, (fn. 81) the Duchy of
Lancaster, (fn. 82) and the Irish Chancery (fn. 83) each provided
two canons. On the other hand at least 15 canons
were associated with the Chapel Royal, notably those
of Walton prebend, which was held continuously
by vicars choral and other clerks of the Chapel Royal
from 1479 if not earlier. (fn. 84) A further six 15th-century
canons were Oxford scholars. (fn. 85)

The practice of granting the right of next presentation to vacant prebends is first met with at Bridgnorth in 1475 (fn. 86) and this seems to have become the
normal method of dispensing Crown patronage here
by the early 16th century. (fn. 87) The Chapel Royal retained its interest in Walton prebend to the end but
the four remaining prebends were held from the
1490s by canons without known connexions with the
Crown. A few bore local names but the antecedents
of most of them are not known.

There is little evidence that the Crown's rights of
patronage at Bridgnorth, or the status of the college
as a peculiar jurisdiction, were ever seriously challenged. The dean was involved in 1241 in a lawsuit
with a papal collector concerning the sequestration of the former's goods as rector of Claverley, (fn. 88)
but the college was among those royal free chapels
whose exemption from ordinary jurisdiction was
claimed in 1245 (fn. 89) and there is no later record
of trouble from this quarter. Until 1281, when
Bridgnorth's exemption from ordinary jurisdiction
was confirmed, (fn. 90) there were occasional clashes with
the diocesan authorities. The archdeacon of Stafford
had interfered in the appointment of a chaplain to
Bobbington, c. 1222, (fn. 91) and a dispute over the archdeacon's right to levy procurations was in progress
in 1245. (fn. 92) The canons found it necessary, c. 1260, to
ask the dean to protect them from the archdeacon,
who had threatened to impose an interdict on
Bridgnorth and to imprison one of the vicars choral
should he venture outside the town. (fn. 93) The college
also enjoyed some measure of exemption from local
secular jurisdiction; the deans and canons had been
quit of suit of hundred and county in 1234 (fn. 94) and
they were said to be claiming pleas of the crown and
waif in the manor of Bridgnorth in 1292. (fn. 95)

The earliest surviving act book of the dean's
peculiar covers the period 1472-1523. (fn. 96) His court,
normally presided over by a commissary, (fn. 97) then met
at intervals of a little less than a month. Visitations or
general chapters were usually held once a year and
were attended by the vicars choral, the clergy and
other representatives of the two town churches
and the four country chapels in the dean's portion,
and the priors of the hospitals of St. James and Holy
Trinity. Although each of the canons enjoyed
similar peculiar jurisdiction over his prebend, no
record of such peculiars has survived. There are
manor court rolls of Underton prebend, 14581537, (fn. 98) including, in 1501, a combined view of
frankpledge and court for spiritual causes. (fn. 99)

Although there are rare instances of the appointment of local men as canons there is no evidence that
canons had ever been assigned prebendal houses. (fn. 100)
They might go to Bridgnorth on occasion, two
canons being present at the dean's visitation of
1480, (fn. 101) but in the early 16th century they seem to
have stayed at inns in the town. (fn. 102) There are, however,
some indications that deans of Bridgnorth maintained the manor-house at Ludstone as a local
residence until the end of the 14th century. Peter
of Rivaulx obtained a gift of 18 beams for repair
there shortly after his appointment as dean in 1223 (fn. 103)
and the dean claimed the right to take wood for fuel
from Morfe Forest in 1285. (fn. 104) A similar claim was made
in 1332 by Thomas of Eyton, who implies that he
and some at least of his predecessors had been
resident. (fn. 105) When his successor Thomas Talbot
petitioned the king to the same effect he limited his
claim to woods in the manor of Ludstone. (fn. 106) The
timber-framed manor-house which stood there in
the time of dean Thomas of Tutbury (1391-1403)
comprised a hall, chamber, 'frerechamber', kitchen,
and bakehouse. (fn. 107) Other buildings included a gatehouse, partly of stone, and there was a well-stocked
fishpond. Tutbury, who evidently intended to
rebuild the house in stone, had assembled a quantity
of freestone, shingles, tiles, and boards for the
purpose but these were sold by his successor
Columb of Dunbar, who pulled down the greater
part of the house and allowed the remainder to fall
into ruin. (fn. 108)

The chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, which was
demolished in 1792, was described by Leland as
'a rude thing' and was certainly a far less impressive
building than the other collegiate churches in the
county. (fn. 109) The nave, long chancel, and western
tower were probably built c. 1238 (fn. 110) and a north aisle
was added, presumably after 1294, when a chantry
service was founded in St. Mary's by Richard Dammas. (fn. 111) It was originally intended as a private chapel
for the castle but the townsmen petitioned, c. 1330,
that it should become a parish church (fn. 112) and it was
being used as such by the later 15th century. (fn. 113) Its
routine service was the responsibility of the vicars
choral and parochial chaplains. The king had
assigned a yearly stipend of 50s. to the chaplain of
the newly built chapel in 1238 (fn. 114) and this was confirmed in 1259. (fn. 115) There were two such chaplains,
c. 1260, (fn. 116) but again only one after the mid 14th
century. (fn. 117) In the early 16th century his salary was
apparently paid by the dean and canons jointly. (fn. 118)
There had presumably been five vicars choral since
the refoundation of the college but they are not
recorded before 1260 (fn. 119) and little evidence survives
regarding them. In the 16th century their income
was derived from the profits of the Easter light in
St. Mary's church and tithes of wool, lambs, and
hemp in the parish. (fn. 120) These had been part of the
dean's estate, and the dean's court had assumed
responsibility for the discipline of the vicars choral.
In 1512 they were directed to attend services properly attired and not to absent themselves without
permission from the parochial chaplain (fn. 121) and in 1523
the appointment of two vicars choral was quashed
on the ground that they were insufficiently learned. (fn. 122)

The college had been dissolved by April 1548 (fn. 123)
and pensions were assigned to the dean and four of
the canons in the following June. (fn. 124) Eardington and
Walton prebends were granted to John Thynne
and Laurence Hyde in August 1548 (fn. 125) and Underton,
granted to John Peryent and Thomas Reeve in
December 1549, (fn. 126) was sold to Roger Smyth in the
following month. (fn. 127) The deanery and the two
remaining prebends were retained by the Crown
rather longer. The whole of the deanery estate had
been leased, with Morville prebend, to John
Seymour in September 1548 (fn. 128) but the manor and
tithes of Ludstone were granted in 1549 to William
Sawle and William Bridges, (fn. 129) who later sold them to
Edward Leveson and William Billingsley, (fn. 130) and the
great tithes of Bridgnorth St. Leonard were granted
to Francis Tunstall and Thomas Smithies in 1560. (fn. 131)
In 1569 Francis and Martin Barnham were granted
the reversion of Pendlestone mills, the small tithes
and Easter dues of St. Leonard's, and profits of
the dean's spiritual jurisdiction and of markets
and fairs in the town. (fn. 132) The rest of the deanery
estate was granted in 1579 to Sir Christopher
Hatton, (fn. 133) who immediately sold it to Rowland
Hayward and John Lacy. (fn. 134) The reversion of
Morville prebend was acquired in 1554 by
Thomas Reeve and George Cotton, (fn. 135) who then sold
it to William Acton of Aldenham. (fn. 136) Alveley prebend,
which had been leased to William Gatacre in 1561, (fn. 137)
was granted to the Barnhams in 1569. (fn. 138)

4. A copy of the account, made c. 1600, survives in a
volume of transcripts of Acton evidences (S.P.L., MS. 292,
f. 20). This version is headed 'Liberties and foundations'
and is followed by copies of two 13th-century papal bulls
relating to the college. William Acton of Aldenham
acquired the reversion of Morville prebend in 1554: see
below, p. 128. There is a facsimile of an 18th-century
transcript in Arch. Jnl. lxxxiv, facing p. 1. For a 15thcentury reference to the account see N.L.W., Pitchford
Hall 1339.

18. Rather than the 3 hides held for life by the earl's
clerks in 1086, as suggested in Arch. Jnl. lxxxiv, 5; cf.
Eyton, i. 29-31, 69-70. The three prebends were said to
comprise 3½ virgates in 1255 (Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii.
82) and 2 carucates and one noke in 1341 (Inq. Non. (Rec.
Com.), 190).

20. Eyton suggested (i. 321) that the 10s. a year paid to the
canons by the Crown and later by Bridgnorth borough,
sometimes described as a payment in decimis constitutis,
may have been intended as a composition for the portion of
tithes in Morville granted to the college in 1086.

21.
Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii. 59, 64. The value of
Underton prebend seems to have fallen from 50 marks in
1200 to 15 marks by 1272: Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 71;
Eyton, i. 77. The college also laid claim, with less apparent,
justification, to the advowson of Ditton Priors, c. 1196,
and to lands in Tasley, 1203: Eyton, i. 322; Pleas before
the King and his Justices, 1198-1212 (Seld. Soc. lxxxiii),
102-3.

39. Lists of deans and canons, neither of which is wholly
free from error, are given in Eyton, i. 71-78, 117-23, 321-40,
and Arch. Jnl. lxxxiv. 50-62. Except where otherwise
stated the following analysis of the antecedents of deans
and canons is based on the biographical notices by Hamilton Thompson in Arch. Jnl. lxxxiv. 24-49, 63-87.

40. John Witing (Eardington 1207-26), Henry of London
(Morville 1205-8).

64. Thomas Keynes (dean 1353-62) and Walter of London (Underton 1331-2) were king's almoners. For the
latter cf. Emden, Oxf. ii. 1158. Nicholas Slake (dean 138791, Eardington 1394-5, 1396-9) and John Boor (Underton
1395-1402) were deans of the chapel royal and Richard de la
Felde (Alveley 1390-1401) was a king's almoner.

65. William Kirkby (Eardington c. 1343-68); cf. Tout,
Chapters, v. 256-7. Thomas More (Eardington from 1375),
who may have been a wardrobe clerk when appointed; cf.
ibid. iv. 200-1; v. 261-2; vi. 32. Theobald de Troyes
(Underton 1312-21). Robert Elmham (Underton 1361-5),
a former member of the queen mother's household who had
been pensioned in 1358: Cal. Pat. 1358-61, 136.

78. John Marshall (1410-45) and Henry Sever (1445-71)
were Oxford scholars, the latter being also a king's chaplain: Emden, Oxf. ii. 1227-8; iii. 1673. William Chantry
(1482-6) and John Argentine (1486-1508) were of Cambridge, the latter having also been physician to the princes
in the Tower: Emden, Camb. 15-16, 132, 669. William
Cooper (1515-17) had been a fellow of Eton: Emden,
Oxf. i. 507.

111. C 143/20/25; Cal. Pat. 1292-1301, 107. From the
evidence of mouldings on the capitals of the former nave
arcade Dr. Watkins-Pitchford considered that it may have
been built as late as the 1360s: W. Watkins-Pitchford,
'History of the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen' (TS. 1950),
pp. 8-10, in S.R.O. 1104, box 17.